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Compassion in the war we can't win: New direction in War on Drugs is welcome
5/20/09|Daily Camera| by Erika Stutzman



With all that's going on in the world and with the economy, a big shift in the national dialogue on illegal drugs has gone relatively unnoticed. But at the federal level, the change in our decades-long, totally unwinnable "War on Drugs" is a welcome shift, both in tone and practice.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals from two California counties that object to that state's medical marijuana law. The counties had sought to defeat the state's 13-year-old law that allows people suffering from various illnesses a license to possess and use marijuana, saying the authorization is at odds with the federal government's "zero tolerance" drug policy.

In a shift from previous top prosecutors, Attorney General Eric H. Holder recently said the federal government will not be devoting a lot of effort prosecuting low-level marijuana cases. And now, the Supreme Court's rejection bolsters the state laws -- although it should be noted that officially, the sale or use of marijuana is still considered illegal by the U.S. government.

The attorney general's statement and the Supreme Court's action are good news for patients who live in states with compassionate marijuana laws. Like California, Colorado recognizes the relief that marijuana can bring to some patients with HIV/AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and the severe pain and nausea that comes from those and other ailments.

Colorado's medical marijuana law was passed by the voters in 2000. Almost 7,400 people have applied to be registered as medical marijuana patients. Some registrations have expired, some patients have died, 35 applications were rejected and 18 cards have been revoked. Today, there are about 5,920 medical marijuana users here, including 560 in Boulder, 48 in Broomfield and 255 in nearby Weld.

Severe pain accounts for about 88 percent of the users -- though some patients register for multiple ailments, such as severe pain and cancer. Whether or not pot should be legalized and regulated full-stop is a question for another time: The high court's rejection of the California case allows states like our own to continue compassionate care.

Elsewhere in the war:

Gil Kerlikowske, the newly named head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said that the country will shift toward an emphasis on treatment over incarceration to try and reduce drug use.

"Regardless of how you try to explain to people it's a 'war on drugs' or a 'war on a product,' people see a war as a war on them. We're not at war with people in this country," Kerlikowske said in his first interview last week.

This is a most welcome shift: We need to start being honest about the costs of this war. Our prisons are filled with people busted for even low-level drug use. "Zero tolerance" policies filter down to even the smallest of municipalities: That where a school district will strip search a very young girl, because she was suspected of having Ibuprofen.

Meanwhile, a real, actual, bloody and terroristic war rages right over our own border because of our laws and our seemingly insatiable appetite for illegal drugs.

With the words of our new Attorney General, our new drug czar and the actions of our Supreme Court, we are optimistic about this shift in "war" strategy.